Israel's new government would talk peace with Syria if it dropped preconditions such as an Israeli commitment to return the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday. “I would be happy to hold negotiations with Syria this very evening, but without preconditions and without ultimatums,” Lieberman told Israel Radio. Lieberman, an ultranationalist coalition partner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the less-than-month-old government was still formulating foreign policy but made clear he saw Syria's bedrock demand for the Golan as up for debate. This is not the view from Damascus, which says Israel, which annexed the Golan in a move not recognized abroad, is legally required to return it along with other occupied Arab land. “Each of the sides has a position. Syria may want sovereignty on the Golan Heights, while we ask for a 200-year lease on the Golan Heights,” Lieberman said. “They can demand the Golan Heights in exchange for peace, while we will demand peace for peace,” he added, criticizing Syria for “setting an ultimatum” by hinting, on occasion, that it could resort to force to retake the strategic plateau. Netanyahu's centrist predecessor, Ehud Olmert, held indirect talks with Syria. Olmert had his own precondition for fuller engagement with Syria – that it distance itself from Iran, and Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas guerrillas.
